


Memories

by TheSilenceIsKillingMe (TheVoice21)



Series: Pitiful Child [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Dick Grayson is a Talon, Fluff, Fluffy at the end I guess?, For the Roasted Server Secret Santa Fic Exchange 2019, Gen, It's never explicitly mentioned but it's implied, POV Outsider, Roasted Server Secret Santa 2019, VanillaBean I'm sorry, i guess? not really though, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21936283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVoice21/pseuds/TheSilenceIsKillingMe
Summary: Garfield Logan had many questions in him, just waiting to be asked. He wanted to know if Red Jay was finally with Cassie, why Blue Jay changed to guns, when Megan and Connor would finally propose or when Wally would next visit. He asked many questions yet they never seemed to run out, something was always capturing his attention, unanswered and begging to be asked about. He would always ask the questions, whether it be in that moment or at a later, more appropriate date. It wasn’t even uncommon for him to ask the same question a few times if he was unsatisfied with the original answer.There were however two questions he would never ask.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Garfield Logan
Series: Pitiful Child [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633180
Comments: 13
Kudos: 131
Collections: Roasted Server Secret Santa 2019





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VanillaBeanChild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillaBeanChild/gifts).



> Hello, this is my Roasted Server Secret Santa Fic Gift Exchange for VanillaBean! I hope you enjoy it!

Garfield Logan had many questions in him, just waiting to be asked. He wanted to know if Red Jay was finally with Cassie, why Blue Jay changed to guns, when Megan and Connor would finally propose or when Wally would next visit. He asked many questions yet they never seemed to run out, something was always capturing his attention, unanswered and begging to be asked about. He would always ask the questions, whether it be in that moment or at a later, more appropriate date. It wasn’t even uncommon for him to ask the same question a few times if he was unsatisfied with the original answer.

There were however two questions he would never ask.

It wasn’t even an unspoken rule, it was openly stated that one was not to ask. You weren’t to question lest you face the wrath that was a furious original team. And a furious original was far worse than an angry or upset original team. 

He had witnessed their reaction once, a year into being apart of the team when La’gaan had not been thinking and without consideration of the team’s feelings and the blatant rule against it had asked the ‘forbidden’ questions.

Garfield remembers with such clarity how Megan’s soft hazel eyes hardened and narrowed in on La’gaan. How Connor whipped around fast enough to give a human whiplash, boring holes into La’gaan’s soul. How the sound of Artemis whetting her arrowheads in long slow strokes was the only sound, made bigger by the size of the lounge. How Wally, ever-moving Wally, stilled. Stilled until you couldn’t see the moving of his chest, stilled until the only thing moving was his shaking fist.

And then it happened so fast.

In an instant, Wally was standing over La’gann his knuckles smudged with blue blood. Wally’s chest was heaving, his arm still poised mid-air from throwing a solid punch. Garfield could have sworn he saw tears drip down his face, not that he was going to mention that to anyone.

La’gaan himself was spread on his backside, clutching his likely broken, but  _ definitely _ bleeding nose and glaring daggers at Wally. He swapped his hand to his sleeve to wipe away the blood that was steadily pouring out. The nose  _ was _ broken then. Now Garfield didn’t particularly  _ like  _ La’gaan but they were teammates and could work together fairly well given the chance to, that being said he felt absolutely no remorse at the punch. Truth be told La’gaan could be a bit of a jerk sometimes.

“Don’t you  _ dare  _ say something like that  _ ever  _ again you-you  _ inbred pufferfish _ ,” Wally’s anger was hardly contained as was and his wavering voice only added to that. “ _ He is your teammate and you dare go behind his back and say such disgusting words and ask such questions- _ ”

Artemis had come up from beside him and placed a hand on his chest, successfully drawing him out of the blind rage he’d been in. The anger certainly didn’t dissipate from his eyes, merely became more controlled. She turned her head around to face La’gaan again, a seething look on his face, her mouth curled into a sneer.

“And  _ I _ recommend you start to remember to respect your teammate. And  _ I  _ think it’s very brave of him to go against people like you’s stereotypes and try his hardest to become a hero.”

La’gaan wasted no time in scrambling backwards and off the floor, clutching his bleeding nose in one hand and pointing at Artemis and Wally, his whole body shaking with what Garfield could only assume to be a mixture of fear and rage. 

“You’re crazy,” La’gaan yelled unsteadily, “if you think that  _ monster  _ could  _ ever  _ become anything more.”

Now Garfield hadn’t particularly  _ liked  _ La’gaan but he could work with him in a given situation. He doubted he’d even be able to be in the same  _ room  _ as him, much less feel anything other hate for him. That was simply not something you said to anyone,  _ ever. _ And now not only had La’gaan yelled that he yelled it behind his back and the bats’ back.

La’gaan was sure to be firmly reprimanded, perhaps suspended. Well, if Blue Jay had his way,  _ kicked off the team _ . Garfield couldn’t help but feel nothing at the prospect of that happening.

And so it was needless to say Garfield would keep these two questions close to his heart, never letting them go and never,  _ ever  _ asking them. And he was perfectly fine with that. Afterall where would one casually bring into a conversation,  _ ‘Hey why the actual hell is your first instinct always to  _ **_kill_ ** _?’  _ or  _ ‘What the hell happened to you that made you practically a zombie?’ _ _  
  
_

**-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-**

  
  


Garfield wholeheartedly believed in being nice to everyone, sometimes when they didn’t deserve it. He never used excessive force with criminals or goons, was polite and never spoke behind someone’s back. Sometimes when he got really angry he might say something he regrets or he believed and didn’t stand down. But overall he tried to be nice to everyone and whilst keeping that in mind,

Nightwing was weird.

Not the nasty weird where one didn’t want to spend time with them or was disgusted by them, just… weird. Unusual even. His skin was paperwhite, and not in the figurative sense, which only made the dark purple veins snaking across his skin all the more prominent. He was ice cold to the touch, and that was if you by some miracle you could touch him, he seemed to love being touched but at the same time feared it. 

He had this crazy regenerative ability and according to Blue Jay nothing short of his body being completely obliterated or decapitation,  _ he just didn’t stay down. _ That being said it appeared as though he didn’t feel pain, no matter how broken his body is he always gets back up, half the time he doesn’t wait for the regeneration to kick in and just stormed the enemy. Blue Jay hated it when Nightwing did that. 

He was really fast, not metagene fast but fast nonetheless, and strong too. He was super shy about his eyes and in the rare instance he was in civvies and his wraparound sunglasses were knocked off there were a few seconds in which one could see the most dazzling golden eyes. Granted that seldom happened and Garfield had only heard this second hand so honestly, he didn’t know.

He never slept, instead opting to do work given by Blue Jay. Garfield wasn’t too sure how that worked out and despite the many reassurances of Red Jay, he was sceptical at best. He loathed death and did everything in his power to prevent it and Garfield had lost count of the number of times he and the others had been saved from near-death by Nightwing.  ~~That was if you ignored the times _he_ was the cause of the death.~~

And then there was the thing about him not ageing. When Nightwing first joined Blue Jay had said he was estimated to be fourteen and it had been three years. That was the prime age for growth yet no height had been gained, no weight gained or lost or muscle finally fulling in, no change whats or ever.

So to say Nightwing was weird was an understatement but everyone respected him and was a valuable member of the team. He had yet to mess up any plan put down and was quick to adapt. He had few weaknesses granted his overwhelming fear of the cold was quite troublesome to work around but they could make a plan. 

And Bart had a weird relationship with him. Like a really weird one.

**-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-**

Garfield liked Nightwing. He didn’t like talking or touching, especially the younger members of the team (like Garfield,) but with a bit of persuasion or a look from Blue Jay, he would always be down to play with Garfield. Which was great since he was the youngest on the team and it was common for people to be busy or simply not want to play him, which was understandable they were all boring teenagers and older.

Garfield also liked throwing his cheap bouncy ball with Nightwing. It became a competition of sorts, to see who could throw the highest, furthest or just general cool tricks. Nightwing was embarrassed (or as embarrassed as he could be) when you said it but he could be quite childish, taking joy from simple kids toys or the games that Garfield played on his Nintendo.

And so Garfield found himself playing extreme ball bouncing with Nightwing in the hanger. Nightwing per usual had the same neutral expression, bordering on bored even, though he knew that wasn’t the case, Nightwing just had a really hard time expressing himself. That was okay, Garfield spent a lot of time learning to decipher his microscopic expressions, something Nightwing seemed grateful for.

“Hey, do you feel that?” Garfield asked, holding the ball tentatively in his hand. There was something  _ wrong _ in the air, shimmering slightly. “It feels kinda-”

The air escaped his lungs as he was tackled to the ground, a hand behind his head to keep it from banging against the floor. Nightwing hovered atop him, his body protecting Garfield from whatever was in the middle of the room. He hissed like a cat, body poised to attack and head swivelled to the middle of the room, teeth bared.

Garfield’s senses were suddenly overwhelmed, causing him to clutch his head in pain. He could see Nightwing’s fingers twitched, a sure way to tell when he felt pain as it was the only way he ever expressed it. Garfield momentarily was blinded and deafened, his overwhelmed senses crumbling under the pressure.

When his senses came to he was alone on the floor, his body propped up against the wall. Nightwing was in the middle of the room, his arms raised slightly to accommodate the body wrapped around his stomach. A mop of caramel hair was buried into his abdomen, arms clutching tightly to the front of his suit. The figure desperately holding onto Nightwing wore a cream and red coloured bodysuit. From where Garfield sat he could make out the movement of his shoulders that he was shaking, ad violently at that. 

And then the ringing died down and he could  _ hear _ the figure. The most heartbroken sobs sounded throughout the room, only getting wetter and stronger as time went on. Nightwing seemed stunned, looking down at the scrawny figure, mouth opening and closing. By the clenching and unclenching of his raised hands, Garfield could tell he was unsure on how to proceed.

Garfield wasted no time and leapt to his feet, opting to ignore his blackening vision from the sudden movement. He darted across the room towards the computer, slamming his hand on the lockdown button. Once he had confirmed that the gates and reinforced door were well on their way to closing did he press the panic button. This one alerted both Megan and Blue Jay. Megan for she was the team leader and Blue Jay since Nightwing had been placed in a compromising position, which meant one of two things

> A) Nightwing had by some unimaginable power been rendered immobile and/or was in a life-threatening position.
> 
> B) Nightwing was confused an in a surprising situation, and his reaction was unaccounted for.

Needless to say, B happened a lot more than A. B was also considerably more dangerous than A for everyone involved. Sometimes innocent (or ignorant) bystanders were dragged in. It was an ugly sight to behold and clean up was worse. And honestly, Garfield was not looking forward to the utter mess this was already making.

**-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-**

It had turned out the figure had been the Flash’s grandson from the future, Bartholomew Allen, who had been sent back for unknown reasons. Well, Batman and associates more than likely knew what was really going on if the way Call-me-Bart refused to leave Nightwing’s side, more than often he would cling to his back like a koala.

Bart himself was a pretty fun guy. He was energetic and loved playing with Nightwing Garfield. The fact that he looked at Garfield like he hung the stars in the sky when he thought Garfield wasn’t looking was weird but it paled in comparison as to how he looked at Nightwing.

It was the oddest mixture of awe, a small joy, this unexplained expectancy, hope, and this subtle disappointment whenever Nightwing gave any attention to Bart. Whether he looked at him, spoke to him or even mentioned his name. Bart tried his hardest to hide the disappointment but Garfield studied  _ Nightwing’s  _ expressions for  _ fun. _ Bart was a field day for his skills.

However, whenever Nightwing so much as walked in the same room as him his whole demeanour brightened. And as an already bright and cheerful boy, it became almost impossible to look directly at his smile.

Megan and Zatanna adored Bart and Bart adored them right back. Megan loved having another little brother that she could take care of. Zatanna liked to how reacted to when she did magic. Garfield, however, didn’t like the implications that he had never seen magic like this before, it’s implications weren’t great.

Even after all Bart’s oddities and weird future slang (that the team was picking up on) Garfield still liked Bart and Bart liked Garfield.

**-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-**

Garfield remembers the first time he saw Nightwing kill someone. He was aware it’d happened before, and a lot more in Gotham but he had never really  _ seen  _ him do that act. To be fair he doesn’t remember much of the kill and it was his first death to boot.

He doesn’t remember who they had been fighting, but he remembers the way the body fell. He doesn’t remember the face of the victim, only the dagger buried into their neck. Doesn’t remember them collapsing on Garfield but Garfield remembers the way the blood poured over him and infiltrated his mouth and nose. He doesn’t remember who moved the body off him, cradled him close their chest, only the sight of Nightwing looming over them, his hand devoid of its usual silver dagger.

~~It haunted Garfield’s nightmares for months.~~

**-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-**

Garfield remembers many nights when he’d sneak out of his room and head to the library. More often than he’d like to admit nightmares would wake him up at night and drenching him in cold sweats. This would lead him to the library.

Nightwing disliked bright lights, instead opting to rather light a candle.  ~~Garfield had a sneaking suspicion that the candle was lit out of habit rather than necessity~~ ~~.~~ Blue Jay gave him work to do at these times, and only those who had joined him at these hours would know it was homework. Even fewer were aware he did it at these hours do to how long it took for him to complete it. He was embarrassed by his inability to work out the answer quickly.

Nightwing however only got back from patrol around two-ish in the morning, which sometimes meant Garfield was left to wait in the self-lit candlelight by himself for a few minutes. It wasn’t as efficient as Nightwing but the dim light helped scare away the nightmares that haunted his dreams.

When Nightwing  _ was _ there there would always be a steaming cup of hot chocolate waiting for him. When Garfield was already there waiting for him Nightwing showed up with hot chocolate. It was always made to their liking, just perfect for the mood.

On the occasion where someone else joined them, usually Bart or on the rarer occasions Red Jay, Jamie, and one or twice Cassie, they each had their drink prepared. (Bart like fancy coffee drinks while Red Jay liked black coffee.  ~~He never gets it~~ **.** )

Nightwing would silently hand their drink to them and continue to work on most nights. He pats the space next to him before wrapping them in a blanket n worse nights. On the rarest occasion, he will do just that but instead of going back to his work he’ll give you this  _ look _ that just makes you want to talk about it. (Once he even  _ asked _ Garfield to talk about it, needless to say, he cried in his arms for the next hour)

**-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-** **-**

Garfield remembers the times Nightwing has given him nightmares or scared him or generally creeped him out. It’s in these moments where he has to repeat to himself to be nice, to gracious to give the benefit of the doubt as he’s trying even harder than all of them to be a hero and honestly? It’s a little inspiring.

But on far more occasions he remembers the happy memories, of times that outnumber the bad ones twenty to one. The ones where Nightwing give his rare smile or his rarer laugh. The wonder in his demeanour at the first Nintendo game he ever saw Garfield play. The quiet nights in the library or the bright and loud ones with the team on the beach.

At the end of the day, month, year or even decade Garfield doesn’t care. Doesn’t care about his lack of heartbeat, his cold skin or the lack of academic talent. Doesn’t care if he avoids touch like the plague, if he doesn’t know his name or even what his eyes look like. Garfield  _ doesn’t care if he’s weird. _

So who cares if his first instinct is to kill? On the odd occasion, he follows through it messes him up more than one could imagine. If he’s a zombie? He a half martian green shapeshifter with a martian for a sister, they’re not exactly human as one might say.

Garfield doesn’t mind keeping his questions to himself. Not when he has something much better than answers right here in front of him.

Garfield loves his weird, quirky best friend. Loves him to the ends of the earth and would probably follow him there too.

And he has no doubt in his mind that Nightwing would do that same for him.


End file.
